Chapters ia both that are never agpointed to be read Whether the Church do well to appoint above an hundred of Apocryphal Chapters to be read and about an hundred eighty eight Canonical Chapters never to be read is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certainly he that would adventure in a Sermon to say de facto That the Church had appointed the whole Bible to be read over once a year had taught his tongue not much to regard Truth So had he also who adventured to say pag. 23. That it is required of the people that they repeat aloud the Confession of sins No such thing is required of the people rather it is required that they should repeat the Confession of sins with a lowly and submiss voice Should all lift up their voyces aloud there might be more confusion then Mr. D. is aware of But though I am confident Mr. D. is mistaken about the two last mentioned particulars yet I must profess I am not clear about the Churches meaning in either of them After order taken for the reading of the Psalms we are thus directed Then shall be read distinctly with an audible voice the first Lesson taken out of the Old Testament as is appointed in the Kalendar except c. Any man by this would think that the first Lesson were alway by the Kalendar appointed to be taken out of the Canonical Scriptures of the Old Testament yet the Kalendar appoints many Apocryphal Chapters to be read for the first Lesson Is Apocrypha become a part of the Old Testament I know our Church had no intention to make it so yet the Phrase used by her in a Complex Notion sounds as if she did I suppose therefore she calls all Books preceding the New Testament whether Canonical or Apocryphal by the name of the Old Testament If this supposition hold than the admonition to all Ministers Ecclesiastical prefixed to the Second Book of Homilies will warrant them to change all the Chapters Apocryphal that shall fall in course to be read on every Sunday or Holiday into a Chapter of the New Testament for in that Admonition such Liberty is granted or rather such course is prescribed in reference to the less edifying Chapters of the Old Testament But perhaps by assenting and consenting to all and any thing Ministers have given away their liberty to make any such exchange Let those whom it concerns consider Where I live I have little opportunity to hear Apocrypha read publickly and if in my Family I make choice of Divinely inspired Writings to read I hope I am no transgressour of the Law Nor really do I know what is meant in our Liturgy by a loud voice In the old Common Prayer Book after the absolution the Minister was appointed to begin the Lords Prayer with a loud voice In the new loud is changed into audible and we are also required at that time to repeat it after the Minister which was not required in the old But now coming to look upon our directions for the rehearsing of the Lords Prayer after the repeating of the Creed I find that not only the Minister but Clerks and people are appointed to say it with a loud voice I cannot think the phrase is meerly varied by Chance nor yet do I see the Reason of the variation nor do I observe any either Priests or people thus to vary by straining their voice higher at one time than another Perhaps our last Amenders of the Liturgy did put audible instead of loud in some places that we might know that voice was loud enough on the Ministers part which the people could hear but what shall be called either an audible or loud voice on the peoples part Are those people that kneel at one end of the Church to speak so loud as they may be heard of those who kneel at the other end or loud enough to be heard of the Minister or only loud enough to be heard of those who are next to them Mr. D. hath had many occasions and opportunities to assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed and therefore is ignorant of none of these things Let him be him be intreated to help us poor Ingrams for our Countrey Priests are as unable to untie these knots as our selves All this I have written not out of any dislike to those who put out their Books in the defence of the English Liturgy for I should be right glad of the pains of any who would justifie it against all the Objections with which it is pressed provided he would do it like a Scholar and like a Christian grounding whatever he writes upon such Reasons as are apt to move those who have Consciences and do remember that God will bring them to a strict account for all that they do in his Worship but Mr. D. evidently is no meet person to make our Churches defence for he has been so highly rewarded is so overwhelmed with Ecclesiastical Preferments and Dignities that the World will hardly think any thing put him upon writing besides filthy lucre If he would have done our Church service be should have contented himself with some one Ecclesiastical Preferment spending himself in that going to his people from house to house perswading them to credit the Liturgy by excelling all those in Virtue that used no Liturgy he should have conjur'd them to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to use their best wisdom so to order their affairs as that they might have leisure to come Morning and Evening every day and receive the benefit of their Churches Liturgy but as the Apostle said That they who themselves were circumcised kept not the Law so we say that they who have assented and consented do not observe the Orders and Rules to which they have given assent and consent nor yield that Obedience which they have sworn to yield How few be they that Catechise half an hour every Sunday and Holiday How few be they that have called and advertised notorious evil-livers not to approach the Lords Table until they have truly repented and amended their naughty lives How many have subscribed the Articles who never so much as read the Homilies that by the Articles they are to approve I once happened into the Company of the Rectour of a Parish who signifying to me that he had lately been with the Bishop to receive Orders from him I asked what things were required of him in order to Ordination He told me among other things he had subscribed the three Articles in the 36 Canon but when I demanded of him what those Articles were he confessed he knew not what they were nor had he ever seen them but followed his Leader and not long since one had confidence enough to come to a Reverend Minister of my acquaintance with a purpose to perswade him to Conformity but my Friend arguing for his Non-conformity from a very plain passage in the Liturgy he denied that there was any such passage
think our Episcopacy to be Primitive for Doctor Hammond in his Answer to Blondel complains of him as if he were so far from being touched with any care of our Church or sense of our miseries that he thought meet contrarily more sharply to prick those that were already oppressed and endeavoured to triumph over our Church when it was sick and staggering and ready by reason of inward troubles to give up the Ghost let Mr. Durell now consider whether he will make his Countryman Blondell an Enemy to our Hierarchy or make our Countryman Dr. Hammond a Calumniatour one of the two he must unavoidably do And for the future let him bethink himself how to wipe off that great and black blot which he hath let fall upon some of the best and most obedient of the Sons of the Church of England page 2. viz. that they weakly suffered themselves to be brought into a bad and false opinion of the Transmarine reformed Churches meeâ—ly by the reports given them by the new Presbyterians For certainly it is little to their credit when they had the Confessions and Symbolical Books of the reformed Churches in their Libraries never to consult them but to take up reports concerning their Neighbours from Men whose interest did lead them to make the world believe that they had a many Friends abroad though but few at home Doubtless our Episcopal Divines knew well enough that the Hierarchy they aimed at was not countenanced by Sister-Churches and long before Smectymnuus was heard of or ever such a creature as an Ordinance of Lords and Commons saw the light one among us had said publickly perfecto odio odi Calvinum and Bishop Laud had inured his tongue to say Ecclesia Romana and Turba Genevensis he had also told Bishop Hall that though he did well to put a difference betwixt the Scottish and other Churches yet he had written more favourably even of other Churches than their cause would then bare and the good cause then in hand did work so powerfully even upon the Holy and Learned Bishop Hall himself that he adventured as Mr. Prin tells us to reordain Mr. John Dury though he had been before ordained in some Reformed Church Such an Episcopacy as was claimed by Arch-bishop Cranmer the far greater part at least of present Non-Conformists could admit but such an Episcopacy as Arch-bishop Laud was introducing they cannot yet digest and that is the Episcopacy that the present book of Ordination if assented and consented unto would engage us in and let it not seem strange that the present Non-Conformists startle at it when as Dr. Holland the Kings professour of Divinity in Oxford was so much offended with Dr. Laud for asserting it that he did not stick to affirm he was a Schismatick and went about to make a Division betwixt the English and other Reformed Churches yet though the Non-Conformists do not like such a kind of Hierarchy they will if they consult the peace of their Consciences use no such incivil language against it as some of Mr. Durells Countrymen have done they will not be so uncivil as to call Dr. Hammond Knave which is the English to Salmasius his Nebulo they will not say as Maresius does in his Examen of Dr. Prideaux his four Questions pag. 1. That Dr. Hammond as proceeded to such a degree of fury as professedly to propugne the cause of the Pope Much less will they say that the English Bishops had better consulted their eminence if they had acted more moderately in it and had rather with the rest of Protestants made it to be of humane institution than so stifly to assert the jus divinum of it for as a bow by too much bending of it is broken so they too much stretching their Authority and dignity fell quite from it like the Camel in the Fable who because he affected horns lost his ears pag. 68. least of all will they say as the same Author says pag. 71. which I tremble to English Praesules Angli ex parte collimarunt ad Papismi restitutionem jure postliminii and pag. 111. Vt dicam quod res est haec defensio temporalis Jurisdictionis pro Ecclesiae Ministris portio aliqua est illius fermenti Papistici quo Hierarchiae Anglicanae massa paulatim se infici passa fuit dum magis ambit Typhum Seculi quam humilitatem Crucis meditatur To conclude all when the Learned Gataker was most bitterly railed upon by Lilly for being a Presbyterian he answers in his Apology pag. 24. A duly bounded and well regulated Prelacy joyned with a Presbytery wherein one as President Superintendent Moderator term him what you please whether Annual or Occasional or more constant and continual either in regard of years or parts or both jointly hath some preheminence above the rest yet so as that he do nothing without joint consent of the rest Such a Prelacy I never durst nor yet dare condemn The like he says for divers others if not the greater part of the Assembly pag. 26. And the same dare I adventure to say in reference to the far greater part of the present suffering Ministers nay I may further undertake for them that if any one should publish in print that the difference betwixt a Bishop and Presbyter is by divine institution they would not think themselves any way concerned to have such a one suspended from his Ministry yet if my memory greatly fail me not Mounsieur Peter Moulin in his first Epistle to Bishop Andrews making Apology for some passages in his Tract of the Vocation of Pastors excepted against by K. James useth these or the like words That if he had made the difference betwixt a Bishop and Presbyter to be founded on a divine Law his own Churches would have inflicted Ecclesiastical censures upon him It will concern Mr. Durell highly either to prove that Moulin wronged his own Churches or that they have abated of their zeal against Episcopy for if he prove neither of these he will lose that which is better then all his Ecclesiastical revenues a good name and when his hand is in at this work he may also do well to take Bishop Mountague to task who in his appeal to Caesar by his Majesties special direction and command perused by Dr. White and approved as fit to be Printed says p. 70. That the Discipline of the Church of England in the Synod of Dort and other Dutch Synods is held unlawful If it be held unlawful in the Synod of Dort it may be presumed it was held unlawful by almost all other Reformed Churches for almost all sent thither their Delegates and these Delegates approved the confession of Faith in which onely the Discipline of our Church can be thought to be condemned Now let Mr. Durell bid his zeal awake for certainly Hannibal est ad portas either he or Bishop Mountague will be found false witnesses against the Reformed Churches I will not determine whither must be branded for a
in five of which he most grosly abuses him The first is That all Reformed Churches have Liturgies This I say follows not from any words of Capellus if Mr. Durell say it doth his Logick is his own let him make use of it The second is That the Liturgy of the Church of England is judged by this great man to be not onely pure and free from all Popish Superstition and Idolatry but also from all such things as were onerous and troublesome or which did contribute but little to the Edification of the Church as well as other Reformed Churches Twenty Cart-ropes will not pull this observation out of Capellus his words He onely speaks of the Liturgy made by the first Reformers of our Church which vastly differs from the present Liturgy that Mr. Durell takes upon him to defend The third Observation is of all most marvellous thus worded If these Liturgies ought to recede as little as possible from that of the Primitive Church as he doth intimate undoubtedly the Liturgy of the Church of England is the best and most perfect of them all If Mr. Durell will have this observed we will observe it as the issue of an over-confident fancy yet humbly praying that he would allow us to think that this observation hath no relation in the world to any words of Capellus If he may be judge our Liturgy differs more from the Primitive Liturgies then the Liturgy of any Reformed Churches for he sayes Primitive Liturgies were most brief and most simple consisting of a few prayers c. Now if we should grant our Liturgy to be very simple certainly it is not very brief nor does it consist of but a few Prayers let Mr. Durell officiate according to it Morning and Evening which I never knew any Conformist to do and I will be bold to say his Sermons afterwards shall not be over tedious The fourth Observation is That of all who call themselves Reformed the Presbyterians are the first that ever left off the use of set Forms of Prayer Capellus hath not the word Presbyterians in his work nor am I certain whom Mr. Durell understands by them perhaps he means the English Presbyterians but how came they to be Presbyterians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Capellus was too wise a man to say that they were the first that left off set Forms of Prayer he knew well enough unless he onely was a stranger in Israel that many years before the Assembly met at Westminster set Forms of Prayer had been laid aside and condemned as unlawful by huge multitudes who were angry with the old meer Nonconformist because he would not seperate from the English Church as well as endeavour a Reformation of some things The fifth Observation is That the many reasons for which the Presbyterians had rejected the Common-Prayer Book are very light and almost of no moment at all 'T is true that Capellus hath written something to this purpose but it is the same Capellus who hath written so many bug-bear words against our English Bishops in his Theses de descrimine Episcopi Presbyteri de vario Ecclesiae regimine the former Theses he concludes thus That there was no cause why the Bishops and their Patrons should so greatly insult and onely not grow insolent against those whom invidiously they called Puritans and Presbyterians And let it be observed that if the Presbyterians had onely reproved and not cashiered the Common-Prayer Book their Reasons might have been sufficient notwithstanding any thing Capellus saith to the contrary Sixthly Mr. Durell would have it observed That the Presbyterians themselves who are the known Authors of the Directory are in Capellus his Judgment a froward peevish and superstitous Generation of men Capellus does indeed call the Composers of the Directory morose and froward but seems unwilling to call them superstitious and the same Capellus had commended them for shaking off the Yoke of Episcopacy in his Theses de Vario Ecclesiae regimine Sect. 24. Let Mr. Durell when he puts out next English these words for they seem framed according to the Heart of the Presbyterians and let him then also tell us why he calls the Presbyterians the known Authors of the Directory That Assembly that presented the Directory to the two Houses was as to most of its Members when first called Hierarchical and under an Oath of Canonical obedience there are not very many of them living at present of them diverse conform and are as deeply engaged to use Liturgical worship as Mr. Durell himself let him therefore when he has opportunity enquire of them whether they consented to have the Liturgy cashiered and how they came to fall in love with it again and what made them so fearful least the old subscription should choak us when as they themselves can swallow these new ones that are far bigger and more bulky By this time I hope it is come to my turn to make some observations upon the Theses of Capellus and my Observations may be the fewer because I have already suggested so many and the first thing I observe is That the men against whom Capellus was so not could not be the English Presbyterians unless they were falsly represented to him for these are his words pag. 710 711. They with whom we have to do bewray a manifest enough hatred against Formula's of Symbols or Confessions of Faith and of Catechism and the both antient and recent use and custome of them received in the Christian Church If these are the men he had to deal with then had he nothing to do with the English Presbyterians no men having more contended for Confessions of Faith and Catechisms in set words than they Secondly I observe that he represents himself and his fellow Professors as not condemning or inhibiting a free use of Prayers composed by Ministers themselves Nay these are his words pag. 713. We plainly think it both lawful and consentaneous that they who can do it should discover their gift and industry in praying as in preaching this onely we will that the use of such prayers ought not to hinder the Liturgy constituted by publick Authority and to take away and abrogate all use of it out of the Church And a little after he adds We deservedly condemn the rigour of those who under pretext of a praescript Form of Liturgy do study to eliminate out of the Church all use of Prayers conceived by Ministers themselves Let Mr. Durell consider whether this Damnatory sentence do not fall upon many of his own Patrons and Abettours Thirdly I observe that when the Professor comes to contract what he had said he determines concerning Formula's as if Smectymnuus had too much influenced him for he saith first That they are not absolutely in every time and place and with all men necessary because the Christian Church wanted them for some time and it does not appear from sacred or exotick History whether the Jewish Church did not want them before Christ and
liberty to speak all he had to speak I must therefore out of the Reverence I have for his gray haires and the respect that all Christian Churches bear to him for his Learning and Piety doe him so much right as to let him speak farther about the Controversies agitated among us he hath a Paraeness to the Churches and by name the English Church in that page 146. he tells us what he would have taken from Episcopacy Secular Dominion Terrene Riches or Wealth and the Pompe of Ceremonies and in the next page brings in the Papists laughing and jearing at us for the Ceremonies that we retained here in England since our Reformation so that I may well conclude that it had been more for the interest of the Church to have passed over the Bohemian Churches in silence and it had been well also if the Consensus Poloniae had never been mentioned for in that we shall find a Synod at Cracovia anno 1573. disputing de Choreis and when some had alledged that there were honest as well as dishonest dancings it was at last concluded by the suffrage of all as well Seculars as Clergy that they were to be condemned according to the Scripture and to be forbidden unto all that profess true Piety Will it much please some of our Governours that young Students are by Mr. Durell directed to read the Determinations of this Synod but this is one of the least of the mischiefs that he doth us pag. 93. being surprised with a pang of vain glory and designing to acquaint us with his own Sufferings he doth not stick to deliver that which involves the farre greater part of his present Conforming Brethren under the guilt of Rebellion and Schisme for these are his words pag. 93. It is known how great the Persecution was against all Ministers who adhered to the King and Church of England during the late troubles those who were more gently dealt with were onely plundered turned out of their Livings or imprisoned there were others whom it was thought fitter to cast out of the Land c. Out of these words supposing what is manifest that they who adhered not to the King and to the Church are Traytors and Schismaticks thus I argue All that adhered to King and Church suffered either to Deprivation or Banishment most of the present Conformists neither suffered to Deprivation nor Banishment therefore most of the present Conformists neither adhered to King nor Church and by Consequence were Traytors and Schismaticks The Major is Mr. Durells own The Minor is known to all the Nation most of the present Conformists either enjoyed their own Livings during the late troubles or were put into new Livings If Mr. Durell had enquired of him who Licensed his Book he would have told him that he enjoyed a very good Fellowship in All-Souls during the late confusions but it is usual with Mr. Durell where he thinks any Presbyterian is within his reach to lay about him though he must needs strike through the love of most of his own Friends So pag. 44 〈◊〉 telâ—â— us That those who profess themselves to be Orthodox had either altogether neglected the Sacrament in most Parishes of these three Kingdomes or else had ministred it onely to some few choice persons Which is to throw dirt into the faces of his Epispopal Brethren for they possessed most of the Parishes in this Kingdome to be sure and as for the Kingdome of Scotland there war no neglect of the Sacrament untill that our English Armies had made it impossible for them to exercise their Discipline But Aquilla non capit muscas it is a small thing with Mr. Durell thus to scratch our English Clergy unless he also wound the whole English Nation and that we find him doing for after he had told us that he would set down out of Monsieur Le Moyne's Letter as much as fitted his purpose he sets down this pag. 136. The English have a Natural fierceness and withall a natural inclination to Superstition Doth this Character of our Nation fit Mr. Durell's purpose then certainly it is a wicked purpose which cannot be managed but by the causless aspersion of a whole Nation Usually Superstition dwells in the timerous and dastardly Nature We unhappy Mortalls that we be are naturally fierce and yet naturally Superstitious he that had observed this concerning us should have been so friendly as to tell us what kind of Superstition it is that we are so naturally inclined to that so we might have known how to have watched and prepared Antidotes against it if there be any Antidotes strong enough to expell that which is naturall The Author of this Letter whom Mr. Durell calls one of the ordinary Preachers to the Reformed Congregation of Roan which certainly is a Phrase of disparagement to English ears thinkes that upon account of our Natural fierceness and superstition We stand in need of a Government somewhat Despoticall that is of a Government by Bishops but I would query what kind of Bishops we must have Nature teacheth us to desire some of our own Nation and if they be of our own Nation are not they Naturally Fierce and Superstitious too if they be what Despoticall power shall we have to cure them if they be not then it seems the Episcopal Character expells the Natural Fierceness and Superstition that dwells in English Natures but we never yet had any experience that a mans being made a Bishop in England did work any cure of his Natural Fierceness and Superstition Some men have thought that divers after they were advanced to Episcopal Dignity grew more fierce and more superstitious but this I neither affirm nor deny In the same Letter pag. 134. it is said That it cannot enter into a Rational Mans Imagination that a great Kingdome should come by custome to be content to see its Bishops no more having honoured and reverenced them for the space of one thousand four hundred years This is good news to the Bishops and if they can believe it they may in utramque aurem indormire for Episcopacy it seems as well as Superstition is grafted into the Natures of the members of this great Kingdome and they can neither suddenly nor by custome be brought so much as to a contentedness to want their Hierarchy The Author of this Epistle is famed to be a great Historian and I doubt not but he is so but methinks he is mistaken in his Chronology whilest he makes this great Kingdome to have reverenced and honoured Bishops for one thousand four hundred years I find not any good evidence that there were any Bishops among us till Augustine the Monk was sent to us from Rome and it is not one thousand four hundred years since Augustine came hither I say there is no good evidence of Bishops till then for Venerable Bede the onely Author to be regarded concerning matters Ecclesiastical preceding Augustins mission from the Pope tells us indeed of Brittish Bishops but after
to be found and had not this man then well read and studied the Book to which he so solemnly gave assent and consent I profess where-ever I come I make it my business to reconcile people to the publick Assemblies my Conscience would fly in my face if I should do otherwise but I find my self unable to prevail with them through the prejudice they have taken up against the Liturgy and their prejudices are grounded for the most part upon the wicked lives of those that are the most constant Readers and frequenters of it I shall never upon this account cease to joyn in prayers and to hear Sermons but yet I rejoyce that a great Prelate lately in his Visitation openly declared in his Speech his resolution to proceed and deal more severely against those who should be found loose and profane than against those that differed from him only in Ceremonies The Lord give hearts to those whom it concerns to think immorality worthy of presentment and to set a mark upon all whose feet run into all excess of Riot and whose Tongues are set on fire from Hell that so we may have wherewith to stop the mouths of those who are bent upon Separation and employ their Rhetorick in nothing more than in perswading the people that God is departed from us It would be a small trouble to me to find the Non-conformists disarmed did I find the Weapons of their Warfare put into the hands of those who would use them more to the disadvantage of the World Flesh and Devil I have mentioned one thing that makes Mr. D. not the fittest person in the World to manage this Controversie that is his not being free from at least the suspicion of Covetousness I will suggest one or two more He seems to be very injudicious and therefore puts into his Book such cold Commendations of Church and Liturgy as do only not dispraise it I instance only in Monsieur Vauqueline whom he brings in Pag. 189. thus extolling our Liturgy The Book of Common Prayer is very far from any Idolatry and there is not in it any formal Superstition Is not this a rare Elogium But above all he disparages himself by giving flattering Titles unto men Pag. 87. he tells us that Monsieur Goyen is as versed in Antiquity as possible a Commendation too high to be given to any man and such as that Reverend persons worth will never suffer him to accept of or so much as to commend the love of him who gave it let any one read the Epistle Dedicatory to his Book he will find the Lord Chancellour so highly commended that any one may see the Commendations were rather given to his Place than to his Virtues all the Authority of the Nation hath lately sentenced him to Banishment and yet Mr. D. could not find so much humility as either to bewail his fault or his unhappiness who had bestowed such praises in a printed letter upon him whom the Kingdom has declared to have deserved ill of it and of the Church too I may well think you will begin to say what is all this to the Latine Book that I sent you Or how can I by all you have hitherto writ perceive your Judgment about it Surely Sir the things I have noted out of the English Book are sufficient to let you see that his 2d Book is not worth your reading Scarcely can you find more words put together to less purpose The very Title-Page sufficiently exposes him either to the scorn or pity of those whom he chose for his Adversaries Vindiciae Sacrae Ecclesiae Anglicanae What is this Holy English Church Does he mean that Company of men and women in England who exercise themselves therein that they may be holy as God is holy Quis Lacedaemoniorum vituperat Why is this Church vindicated that no sober man ever went about to accuse If by the Holy Church of England he mean the late Convocation then he hath written as our Episcopal men are wont to write and by the Canons of 1603. it is made a very dangerous point to deny that a Convocation is the Church of England by Repraesentation and I have no mind to try how near I can come to that danger without incurring it Seeing Mr. D. has professed with thankfulness that he learned Divinity under Amyraldus he may do well to try whether he can confute his Master in his Theses de Ecclesia nomine ac definitione and de ratione convocandorum Conciliorum which do not look very smilingly upon that form of Speech which we use in England or upon the way of constituting our Convocations Mr. Jeanes a man of a very Scholastical Head had called the Convocation The Church of England but in the Second part of his Divinity he wonders upon what account he or any one else could think it to be the Church of England he instances in his own Diocess in which there was one Dean one Prebend three Arch-Deacons whereas the whole Clergy of the Diocess chose but two so that he thinks our Convocations may be rather called Repraesentatives of the Bishops and Cathedrals than of the Church of En-England And he asks whether if the King should chuse two hundred into the House of Commons and the people one that Meeting could be called the Representative of the People of England Mr. D. who has used this Title should have done well to give satisfaction to such kind of Questions is these and to have shewed us Synods in other Churches the Major part of the Members whereof are neither chosen by the people nor by the Clergy instead of doing so he hath left it doubtful what he means by the Church And it is much more doubtful to me whom he means by his Schismaticks against whose vociferations he pretends to defend his Church When you have called a man Schismatick you have call'd him every thing but I believe no man in the world thinks that all those against whom he vents his spleen in this Book deserve to be called Schismaticks I am sure according to the definition of Schisme that is given by Dr. Hammond they are not Schismaticks Mr. D. seems to thrust out his sharpest sting against Mr. Baxter Now it is notoriously known that he constantly went to the publick Congregation it s known also that he has in the publick Congregation received the Sacrament of the Lords Supper according to the form that is by Law established he has Communion with the Church of England in all Ordinances takes a great deal of pains to resolve the doubts of those who scruple Communion with her and yet is in Mr. D's account one of the Heads of the Schismaticks Let him take heed that he do not throw this dirt into such mens faces if he do it will fly back into his own The Case of hundreds of Non-conformists stands thus When they were School-boyes or Under-graduates in the University the King called the so much talked of Long-Parliament in which
but giving them this grain of allowance their position though well meant by them will be found neither sound nor safe Let Mr. D. therefore warn those for whom he designed his Book against this Tenent let all men understand that the English Non-Conformists are of a quite contrary Judgment For they say unanimously that all wicked men have a true Right to all that whether Authority or Estate unto which they came by due and lawful means and that God will never punish them because they had no right to the Estates they came honestly to but because they did not use their Estates aright I have onely one request more to make to you and by you to all your Friends and it is a very reasonable one namely that you and they would rather credit the Kings Declaration concerning the English Presbyterians than Mr. D's either English or Latine Book This one desire being granted the Presbyterians are as safe as an Amulet can make them Object You will say If they only suffer beyond the Seas through Mr. D's misrepresentation why have not I so much Charity as to reply upon his Book and make in Latin as once Mr. Nichols did in English a Plea for the Innocent Answ Truly Sir because I have found by Observation that it is in vain to disarm him who hath a Panoply in the very next Dunghil to which he comes there is no dealing with him who First Will deny matters of fact without Reason Secondly Will not take notice of the true state of the Controversie Thirdly Will never yield though he have nothing to say for himself Such an one is Mr. D. For if you look into his Book you fill find him charging the Apologist with Fables and Legends that is in plain English giving him the Lye and yet never giving the least Reason to perswade the World that the things written by him were false He calls it a Fable that any man should be reported to give Counsel advise to have the surplice after it was worn out burnt to ashes the Ashes put into an Urn buried under the Altar and yet this very thing I have heard strongly and stoutly asserted by more than one Conformist who if need require would not be ashamed to testifie it publickly Also he would have it a Fable that a man who had threatned a Minister for not reading the Common Prayer should being sick send for him and desire him to pray for him not making use of the Common-Prayer but this as it was long since Printed by Giles Firmin so it will be verified when he pleases That Bishop Saunderson should desire to have Prayers read him out of the whole Duty of Man he would also have to be a Fable but the Chaplain who read them told me and others so and I suppose is too honest a man to deny what he said before so many As for his not taking notice of the true state of any Controversie I refer you to his Book to what part or parcel soever of it you shall please to chuse If I mistake not very near his Conclusion he has a Chap. with this Title Whether Calvin more favoured Schismatical Presbyterians or Prelates Can you think that ever there was such a Controversie on foot in England Did any one offer to say that Calvin had favourable thoughts of Schismaticks The Question is whether Calvin ever thought Prelacy to be by Divine appointment an Order Superiour to Presbytery And whether he would have all those thrown out of the Ministry who cannot acknowledge it so to be if any thing of Calvins be by Mr. D. brought to this purpose then will I have a quarrel against him that first taught me to construe Latine Take another instance the Apologist had wondered that the Non-Conformists were put upon promising That they would read the Psalter according to the Old English Translation when as we have in our Bibles a New one that is much better he instanced in a few odd and uncouth Translations Now what does Mr. D. upon this Why he asks whether if the Translation be corrupt a man ought rather to forsake his Ministry than to read a corrupt Translation as if the Non conformists had had nothing required of them but only to read the old Translation of the Psalms Yet I confess all these things would not discourage me from taking him to task had I any hopes that he had not taught his forehead not to blush but who would shoot at him that is become unpenetrable I will tell you one Story Mr. D. in the presence of a Noble Person of this Nation said That all the French Ministens disowned the Presbyterian Non Conformists in England that Honourable person presently replied To my knowledge that is not so Nay Some of the French Ministers look upon you as a kind of Apostate for doing what you have done here in England Mr. D. replying They be onely some few hot-headed men that so think it was presently returned by the same Noble Person Nay the men that think so are very Reverend and worthy Divines Yet our Vindex never changed the Copy of his Countenance and what then can you think is to be done with such a man Besides he hath abused Dr. Manton the Author of the Comment upon James and Jude and Mr. Baxter the Author of the Saints Everlasting Rest and of the Learned Discourse against Atheisme and Infidelity and which will render him more odious beyond the Seas he hath most shamefully abused Mr. Gattaker than whom England hath not had a more Learned Critick or profund Divine nor doth he spare the gray-hairs of old Gisbert Voet the only surviving Member of the Venerable the Synod of Dort and he that shall dare to touch such as these wlll not long want a man that shall let him know quid distent aera lupinis For your part my Worthy Friend all you can desire of me in requital of your Civility is but this that I declare my self ready as by these presents I do to remove any scruple that is left in you by the reading of that grand Volumne send me that passage in which you think Mr. D. hath the Non-conformists at the greatest disadvantage If I do not return you a sudden and satisfactory answer then say I have not judged fairly and candidly concerning your Author If you are not at leisure to take this pains employ our worthy friend S. E. who is grown sufficiently zealous for Conformity through whose Pen Mr. D. to be sure will suffer no disadvantage Let him cull out the very best Argument in all this Vindex his Book if I do not forthwith reply to it and that rationally provided the Argument be directed against the Cause and not against particular Persons I will then set a Seal upon my Lips so as never more to plead in done you of Non-Conformity till that be the behalf will give me leave to remain what I am A peaceable desirer of some indulgence for those whom I never found to be humour some but Conscientious and Your humble Servant W. B.